"Textbooks"' for a soon-to-be 21-year old

Hello all:

One of my young friends is turning 21 later this month. For her birthday, I am creating a "Drinking Well 101" course for her with a session each on wine, beer, and cocktails. Each session will be at a place where she can try different things and learn about them from me and possibly some "guest lecturers" whole have extensive expertise (I may be contacting some of you...). I will be creating a "syllabus" for the course and wanted to provide her with "textbooks." For wine, I will probably get her Jancis Robinson's Wine Course. For beer and cocktails, I am coming to you for advice. What are your suggestions for good, fun books for a 21-year old to learn about beer and about cocktails? Thank you!

Hellodali wrote:Hello all:

One of my young friends is turning 21 later this month. For her birthday, I am creating a "Drinking Well 101" course for her with a session each on wine, beer, and cocktails. Each session will be at a place where she can try different things and learn about them from me and possibly some "guest lecturers" whole have extensive expertise (I may be contacting some of you...). I will be creating a "syllabus" for the course and wanted to provide her with "textbooks." For wine, I will probably get her Jancis Robinson's Wine Course. For beer and cocktails, I am coming to you for advice. What are your suggestions for good, fun books for a 21-year old to learn about beer and about cocktails? Thank you!

What a remarkable gift. We just dined with a couple of oenophiles at dinner the other night who brought four bottles from when I was a little kid to serve with the meal.

Rogers Park's one and only Randy Mosher wrote an ideal book for this, "Tasting Beer: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink."

Boozehound by Jason Wilson. It's a fun read, doubles as a spirits/cocktail primer, and features some great recipes.

Not a book, but a good friend:

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I second the Mosher rec. It is quite literally used as a textbook. When I did the cicerone training, it is what we used. He's a very entertaining writer as well.

Thank you all for your recommendations. The birthday girl loved the books and is excited to start "studying!"

I'm late to seeing this for the OP, but I'd like to second the Mosher book, "Tasting Beer." It is excellent.

For cocktails, I think Jim Meehan's PDT book is indispensable. The Wondrich books--Imbibe and Punch--are great for history, but the recipes in there are mostly useful only as a history lesson. Not to knock those books: they're excellent. They're just not complete for today's bartender since 90% of the ingredients a bartender is using now, outside base spirits, citrus juice and a couple syrups, were not at the disposal of the pre-prohibition bartender. Meehan's PDT has a few hundred recipes, lessons on the distillation and flavor profiles of base spirits, liqueurs, etc., a primer in what you need to start your bar (home or professional), and a lot more. It's the book I'd give a someone as her or his first cocktail how-to.

The late Michael Jackson (not that one) was the world's most prolific writer on the topics of beer and whiskey. He wrote dozens of guides to those beverages. Even years after his passing, his opinions still stir up heated discussions among "hopheads", but he garners a lot of respect as one of the pioneers of the beer renaissance. Because of his untimely death, most of his books were published prior to the whole craft beer movement. Therefore, much of the material is outdated, but the basic information is still valid, and some of his most definitive guides have been updated posthumously by other authors.